This guide walks through everything that happens the first time you set up EG on your store: installing the app, choosing a plan, turning EG on for your storefront, and publishing your first promotion rule. Follow it in order — each step unlocks the next.
1. Install EG and choose your plan
When you install EG from the Shopify App Store, Shopify shows you the permissions the app needs up front as part of its managed installation flow. You approve them once, during install, rather than being asked again later — so once installation completes you land directly in the EG dashboard.
Next, you'll see a screen asking you to start your subscription:
Review the plan details shown (the Standard plan, at $14.99/month, includes up to 3 active rules).
Read the trial terms: your subscription starts with a 5-day free trial, and you will not be charged until the trial ends.
Select Start 5-day free trial.
Shopify will ask you to confirm the charge — approve it to continue. You can cancel any time before the trial ends at no cost.
This first screen always starts you on the Standard plan. If you want the Unlimited plan instead, start the Standard trial first, then upgrade from the Plans page inside the app (see the Plans & Billing guide).
Once you've confirmed the subscription, you'll arrive at the EG dashboard (the app's home page).
2. Activate the app embed
Before any EG rule can run on your storefront, EG's theme app embed needs to be turned on in your theme. Nothing you set up in the next steps will actually appear for customers until this is done.
On the dashboard, look for the Theme App Embed card. A status badge on the card shows whether the app embed is currently active on your published theme:
If it's active, your rules can run on the storefront.
If it isn't active yet, rules can't run until you turn it on.
If EG can't confirm the status (for example, because of a temporary connection issue), the card will let you know and offer a Retry button, or you can open your theme editor directly to confirm.
To activate it:
On the Theme App Embed card, select Activate app embed.
You'll be taken into your theme editor, opened directly to the EG app embed block.
Turn the embed toggle on and Save in the theme editor.
Return to the EG tab. EG automatically re-checks the embed status when you switch back to it, so the card should update within a few seconds — you don't need to refresh the page.
If the card still doesn't show as active after saving, select Activate app embed (or Retry) again, or use the Need help? link on the card for more detail.
3. Follow the Setup Guide
The Setup Guide card on the dashboard tracks three tasks to get you fully up and running. A progress bar shows how many you've completed:
Create your first rule — marked complete as soon as you have at least one rule.
Is the rule working correctly? — a self-check step. After activating your rule and testing it on your storefront (see steps 6–7 below), come back and confirm:
Select Yes if it worked as expected.
Select No to open the troubleshooting wizard for common fixes.
Sell more with an upsell rule — an optional second rule template (Offer upsells / add-ons) to boost average order value once your first rule is live.
You can expand or collapse the Setup Guide card at any time, and each task shows a Create rule (or Yes/No) button when selected.
4. Create your first rule from a template
Select Create rule from the Setup Guide (or the page's main Create Rule action) to open the Create a Rule window. You'll see a "Build your own rule" option plus several template cards:
Template | What it pre-fills |
|---|---|
Build your own rule | Not a template — takes you to a blank rule form so you configure every setting yourself. |
Auto add a free gift | Automatically adds a free product to the cart once the customer's cart reaches a value you set. Uses EG's own automatic discount. |
Offer upsells / add-ons | Shows a popup offering add-on products after the customer adds a triggering product to their cart. Rewards are offered to the customer to choose, not auto-added. |
Offer a range of free gifts | Lets the customer pick a free gift from a selection once their cart qualifies — useful for gifts that come in variants like size or colour. |
Target visitors with a special link | Creates a rule that only becomes available to visitors after they click a specific link — handy for social media or email campaigns. Magic-link targeting requires the Unlimited plan. |
Select a template's Use this template action to open the rule form with those defaults already filled in, ready for you to adjust (product selection, cart value thresholds, and so on). Or select Build your own rule to start from scratch.
5. Take the guided tour on the rule form
The first time you open a rule (or any time you want a refresher), look for the Take a Tour button near the top of the rule form. It walks you through each section in order:
Triggers — when EG should activate (cart value, a specific product added, tagged products, or a collection).
Action — what happens when the rule fires: automatically add a reward product, or show a popup letting the customer choose.
Discounts — how the reward is discounted (EG's own automatic discount is recommended since it combines with other Shopify discounts; Shopify automatic discounts, promo codes, and no-discount options are also available).
Schedule — run the rule continuously, or only during a set date range.
Targeting — who sees the rule: all visitors, logged-in customers only, non-logged-in customers only, or people arriving via a magic link, with optional country targeting.
Translations — localize the rule's text if you've set up additional languages.
Test Mode — how to preview the rule privately before customers see it (see the next section).
Use Next/Back to move through the tour, or Finish on the last step.
6. Test before going live
Every rule form includes a Test Mode option. Turning it on generates a private preview link that only you can use to see the rule trigger on your live storefront — customers won't see it. This lets you confirm the rule behaves correctly before switching it on for everyone.
A few things to know:
A rule saved with Test Mode on cannot also be marked active — turn off Test Mode before activating it for real customers.
Shopify discounts (automatic or promo code) aren't available while a rule is in Test Mode; use an EG automatic discount or no discount for testing.
Test Mode and a schedule can't be enabled at the same time — turning one on disables the other. Test the rule first, then add your schedule before going live. (Older rules saved with both will show a warning that discounts may not apply correctly outside the scheduled window.)
For full details on generating and sharing a test link — including combining several rules into one test link — see the Test Mode guide.
7. Verify it on your storefront
Once you're ready:
Save and activate the rule (turning off Test Mode first, if it was on).
Open your storefront in a private/incognito browser window — this avoids cached pages or existing cart data from interfering with the test.
Trigger the rule the way a customer would (for example, add the qualifying product or reach the cart value threshold).
Confirm the reward appears in the cart (or the popup shows, for offer-style rules) with the correct discount applied.
Back in the EG dashboard, open the Setup Guide and answer the "Is the rule working correctly?" task:
Select Yes if everything worked — this completes the task.
Select No to open the troubleshooting wizard. Pick the option that best describes what you're seeing:
Item is not adding — checks for out-of-stock/unpublished reward products, testing in a non-private window, conflicting apps, or page-caching/speed-optimization apps holding a stale version of your store.
Discounts are not applied correctly — checks for combinability settings, promo-code totals not updating until checkout, or other discounting apps interfering.
Unexpected cart behaviour — covers issues like redirects on add, duplicate quantities, gifts missing from the cart, or incorrect totals.
Something else — general catch-all.
If the suggested steps don't resolve it, use Get in touch in the wizard to contact support directly.
8. What to do next
With your first rule live, consider:
Discounts — review how EG's discount options interact with other Shopify discounts and promo codes (see the Discounts guide).
Design & Translations — customize the look of popups and notifications, and add extra languages for your rules (see the Design & Translations guide).
Analytics — track how your rules are performing, including an AI Insights panel available on higher-tier plans (see the Analytics guide).
Add an upsell rule — finish the third Setup Guide task using the "Offer upsells / add-ons" template to boost average order value.
Common questions
Do I need to activate the app embed for every rule, or just once? Just once per theme. The app embed is a store-wide switch; once it's active, any rule you create or activate will run without needing to touch the embed again — unless you switch to a different published theme, in which case you'll need to activate it there too.
Why does the app embed still show as not active after I saved it in the theme editor? EG automatically re-checks the embed status when you switch back to its browser tab. If it's still not showing as active after a few seconds, use the Retry option on the Theme App Embed card, or confirm directly in your theme editor that the embed toggle is switched on and saved.
Can customers see a rule while it's in Test Mode? No. Test Mode rewards only trigger for you, using a private preview link. Customers browsing normally won't see or receive the reward until you turn Test Mode off and activate the rule.
I don't see the "Target visitors with a special link" template — why? That template uses magic-link targeting, which requires the Unlimited plan. Upgrade your plan from the Plans page if you'd like to use it.
What happened to the old "How to Create a Rule for EG" article? That article is being retired in favor of this guide, which reflects the current install flow, dashboard, and rule templates.